Robert Pondiscio 鈥淲hat would happen if we simply adopted policies of systematically removing the most ineffective teachers?,鈥� as recently proposed by Stanford University economist Richard Eric Hanushek:
Here's my guess: we'd have a brand new bottom 6%, while doing nothing to make the other 94% any better. There's nothing wrong wanting to improve teacher quality鈥攚ho wouldn't want to replace the worst teachers?鈥攂ut we'd get further, faster if we attended to curriculum and pedagogy, rather than simply looking at bad teachers and shouting "off with their heads!"